(This week’s civic education and engagement column from Danville’s The Republican newspaper.)
Nobody loves data centers. They require astounding amounts of resources – especially water and electricity – and most employ only a handful of people. Some rely heavily on fossil-fueled backup generators that can affect air quality in the surrounding area. I’ve yet to see one I found physically attractive, either. That’s meant with complete seriousness, because the appearance of commercial buildings affects the perceived quality of life in the community. You often hear that from angry residents: “Who wants to live by a warehouse?”
Given all that, why does it seem local government leaders are so eager to subject their residents to these hungry and noisy eyesores?
Data centers remind me of landfills. Yes, I recognize one is high-tech and the other is as filthy as can be, but their presence in our communities reflects the same reality. Our lifestyle and our quality of life demand access to both.
Danville residents can tell you about landfills. Twin Bridges accepted its first load of trash in 1971, and Waste Management says it annually handles about 850,000 tons of what central Indiana’s humans have discarded. Having lived downwind of a large landfill, I know how residents learn to ignore the smell that’s always lurking in the background.
Nobody loves landfills, either, but we need them. We have to do something with all that garbage we generate. Engineers have determined that encasing it in clay-covered piles is the safest approach, so we have landfills across the U.S. Usually they’re built in the middle of nowhere – and Danville was pretty close to the middle of nowhere in 1971. You had to cross a lot of corn and bean fields to get to the city. Well, the city grew out this way as the landfill grew larger. It’s a well-run operation that contributes to the local economy and provides financial support for recycling and similar efforts – along with a reliable supply of electric power.
Someday, Twin Bridges will be replaced by another landfill, most likely a county or two over as they look for that next middle of nowhere. But there’s a problem with locating landfills farther away: you have to spend a lot of money to transport the trash by truck, and you need more trucks because each makes fewer trips a day. And of course, some other small town will have to endure our stinky stuff.
No, nobody loves data centers. But our communities need them. As a society – not just a nation, but globally – we’ve become increasingly dependent on easy access to digital data. Your smartphone is your key to nearly all the knowledge available in the world, along with conveniences that have transformed your daily life. If I told you that you’d have to give them up, you’d put up a fight. Same if I said you weren’t allowed to have Netflix anymore. Heck, you wish it was faster and even more comprehensive. And have you noticed just how quickly AI has become a part of your life and workplace? Where do you think we’ll be next year at this time? In five years?
That growth can’t happen without vastly more computing capacity and the infrastructure to support it. Back when telephone customers began to demand conveniences like touch-tone dialing, the telephone industry had to invest in a complex switching network. They housed it in large, nondescript brick buildings in most communities. You paid for that infrastructure every time you paid the phone bill. Now we need another generation of infrastructure – essentially, data centers and the networks connecting them – and you’re paying for that new generation through your internet connection, mobile plan, streaming subscriptions, and the like.
Don’t want the infrastructure in your community? Like a landfill, you can always force it on another community a county or two over. But pushing infrastructure somewhere else doesn’t make the need for it disappear – or eliminate the costs that come with it. That doesn’t mean communities shouldn’t demand appropriate locations, safeguards, and accountability.
Disagree with me all you want, but I’m just being realistic. It’s who we’ve become. Try going a week without all those digital resources you use every day. I’ll wager the very thought terrifies you.
Data centers are an inevitability – and not because your local leaders are greedy or want to destroy everything you love about your community. It’s because your neighbors have an insatiable appetite for data. And if you’re completely honest, maybe you do, too.